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Sprinkler system assists
research of wheat fungus
By Luis Jiménez
Summer
Reporter
A new sprinkler system designed by a group of agronomy
researchers could help make easier the search for wheat strains resistant
to fungi such as fusarium, glume blotch and leaf blotch.
The process of identifying fungi-resistant wheat
varieties involves having a suitable environment for the spreading and
flourishing of the fungi that are being studied. Fusarium develops in
the moist canopy of the soil surface. That's where the sprinkler system
comes in, as spring weather conditions usually do not allow the fungi
to reproduce.
The research group led by Herbert Ohm, professor
of agronomy, along with graduate assistant Jim Uphaus and research associate
Dan McFatridge, is finding the sprinkler system successful in their
research. The research, Ohm said, has two objectives: to determine the
genetic inheritance and resistance in wheat of the fusarium head blight;
and to develop improved wheat varieties resistant to the disease.
Ohm said the irrigation system is composed of a
series of "very fine sprinklers" that keep the canopy of the soil surface
moist so that the fungi can develop and consequently be studied.
Fusarium said head blight is the primary concern
of wheat farmers. He said the disease affects wheat in two ways. First,
the seeds in infected wheat plants won't develop yielding production
losses and, second, fusarium produces a toxin that causes digestive
problems in animals and humans, making the grain unfit for feed and
food.
What sets this sprinkler system apart from conventional
systems is the precise output of water coming from the sprinklers, which
leaves the ground moist, but not wet, as conventional sprinkler systems
would do.
The system is installed at the Purdue Agronomy
Research Center on a 1.5-acre wheat nursery, using 11,000 feet of pipes
and more than 1,000 sprinklers.
Uphaus said several wheat genotypes resistant fusarium
have been identified, however, the sources of these plants are places
such as China and South America. Plants from these sources are incompatible
with the climatic conditions in the U.S. Thus, Ohm said, genes have
to be transferred from these varieties into the local wheat strains.
Ohm said the research has been undergone for eight
years and the sprinkler system for two years. He said that through hybridization
of local adapted wheat and fungi-resistant wheat, he expects to produce
wheat plants that are fungi resistant as well as improved in their agronomic
traits.
The research is sponsored in part through the USDA's
Agricultural Research Service, the Indiana Seed Industry and the Agricultural
Alumni seed Improvement Association.
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